Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Disgraceful Exploitation and Lies

A woman says she was raped by Neil deGrasse Tyson in grad school. She contacted me and asked me to share her story. But here’s the disgraceful exploitation that’s going on.

She did not know who I am, at all. She came to me because she was advised to…by slymepitters. The same people who have been indignant for years that women might speak out against harassers. They are trying to deploy this woman as a weapon.

Now, unfortunately, I looked at her story. I can’t say she’s wrong, and she’s definitely sincere, and I can’t rule out the possibility, but her supporting evidence is terribly weak: it’s her personal testimony, which I do not reject, with no other evidence. Her web page does not help her case at all, either — it’s a lot of astrology, and a scattering of youtube videos that are completely irrelevant to her claim. That’s it.

I told her that I won’t go on the record supporting her accusation, because there is no corroborating evidence at all to support it. I took her story seriously, read the case she made, and found no independent evidence to back up the claim that she even knew Tyson.

You can guess where this story is going next.

Now those same assholes are howling that I accepted the accusation against Shermer with no evidence, and that I’m not accepting this one because the victim is a black woman. They must believe their own lies.

I treated this case in exactly the same way as the one against Shermer. What these people have forgotten (or are intentionally lying about) is that before I posted that story, (Post Titled: "What do you do when someone pulls the pin and hands you a grenade?") I got independent evidence that the woman was at the conference, that she was interacting with Shermer, that she was in his hotel room — there was opportunity. I further got accounts of the distress the woman experienced afterwards. Without all that, I might have been willing to believe her, but I would not have been able to step forward and present her account as true, believable, and supported by witnesses.

It’s the same story here. I am willing to believe Tchiya Amet (although I’d rather not believe such a thing of Tyson), but there is no corroboration of any kind, and I cannot go before the public and state that a good case has been made that this crime occurred. It hasn’t.

But I can say that the exploitation of this woman’s pain by a group of people who have been consistent in denying the difficulties women face is one of the more cynically despicable acts I’ve seen them commit.

A comment on the post adds:

Artor
27 January 2016 at 10:30 am

Also PZ, the fact that this story is linked to the Slymepit is a huge flashing sign that it’s completely fabricated bullshit. That alone is enough to dismiss it out of hand.

PZ Myers wishes everyone to believe that this woman approaching him with her story is a frame-job setup by his enemies to demonstrate his hypocrisy. And it may be just that, but that wouldn't be a problem if PZ Myers took the opportunity to explain his approach to accusations of rape and sexual assault. This is what Myers attempted to do, but only managed to further confuse the matter.

PZ Myers would have you believe that his critics are "weaponizing" a possibly mentally ill woman to make a shallow point in a sordid drama.

The facts:

PZ Myers literally profits off of every view of his blog post - his blog is unreadable without an ad blocker. If anybody has incentive to keep the disgusting drama going, it is PZ.

PZ Myers had every opportunity to take the discussion with the accuser to a private forum. Instead, he chose a half dozen tweets and a blog post chastising his enemies. (Proving point #1)

The accusation that critics are "weaponizing" rape victims is absurd and ironic as PZ Myers himself called the accusations he published against Shermer "a grenade".

Rape survivors relying on their story going out as a part of PZ Myers' pioneering reporting are about as successful as those that chose Sabrina Erdely (another known career-building weaponizer).

PZ Myers actually dismisses the accuser's allegations in light of her supernatural views ("Her web page does not help her case at all, either — it’s a lot of astrology")

The "Slymepit", labelled as creating "fabricated bullshit", was the forum of mischief that outed FreeThoughtBlogs' Avicenna - one of their most prolific writers - as a serial plagiarist. If anyone is truly in the bullshit fabrication business, it is FreeThoughtBlogs.

As much as we can dissect, we can rely on simple truths to describe PZ Myers' actions. PZ Myers won't throw his name behind this victim for the same reason that he's not supporting Elyse - the accuser has no one connected to Myers' inner cabal of "feminist" friends to vouch for her, so she may as well not exist.

Furthermore, there is the obvious matter that the accused - Neil deGrasse Tyson - is a diverse darling within the "community" that PZ Myers cannot afford to be seen to treat unfairly. There is no upside opportunity for Myers to sap NdGT's limelight, and a lot of downside if Myers' "progressive" compatriots happen to finally notice that Myers is a bearded white man with a superiority complex that makes side money by co-opting the lived experiences of marginalized women.

With over 200 comments in a matter of hours, Myers' post about this accusation may be the most visited article he's written in several months.

5 comments:

This woman was not only tweeting that she had been raped, but also that nobody was taking her seriously, her assumption was that was probably because she was black.

She was right, nobody was taking her seriously. The people on the feminist hashtag she was using were simply ignoring her... which in it's self shows the hypocrisy of the 'Listen & Believe' feminists. You would at least think they would offer tea and sympathy and try to get the poor girl some help. After all what is important, they welfare of women or deriving political capital from their accusations?

...so somebody who frequents the Slymepit suggested she go talk to PZ, after all he has a history of listening and believing and preaches as much.

From here PZ really had three courses of action he could have taken.

1. Not take the woman's claims seriously, but have tried to get her some help, because SHE certainly seems to believe her claims.2. Believed her and publicized her claims as he has done before, making as much capital out of this as possible.3. Disbelieved her, offered her no help, publicized it anyway, blamed his enemies, accuse her of being a stooge, making as much capital out of this as possible.

Of course, he chose the option which benefited him, smeared his opponents and showed absolutely no regard for the woman making the claims.

So maybe that Slymepitter was wrong, it was irresponsible to send her to PZ because it should be obvious by now he cares only for his self interest. PZ has once again been exposed as a hypocrite, but the poor woman got thrown under the bus, not by the slymepitter but by PZ.

Another problem for PZ is that he has already chided Tyson over a relatively trivial matter (the George W Bush quote). PZ was fairly condescending in that matter, so if this woman's story fell apart, that would be two unprovoked attacks on a highly-educated ie. "uppity" black man.Also, Tyson no doubt has some top-notch lawyers that could wipe the floor with PZ.

I did not contact you. You contacted me. I wrote the post for my own healing. I do not care what you say or think about me. That creep is a monster and my life is still affected by his horrendous actions. It took me 30 tears to speak out and now you treat me like a criminal. The things you claim i said about being ignored cuz I am black were actially stated by others. What evidence could I have? It was in the privacy of his wretched apartmenr. I was terrified nauve and insecure. You are a liar and I was warned about you from other reporters. The reporter that wanted to write the story has been seeking for evidence. Howevwr, no one wants to speak out, (therapists, former professors, former classmatea) cux they are afraid of Tyson’s power: everyone loves him so. Maybe one day, more survivors of his assaults will come forward. Before I posted my story, I would end up in fetal position whenever he appeared on tv. But you do not care about me. Folks like you make a living slandering innocent people like me. Have a great day.

Ps: I have never heard of skymepitters. Other reporters warned me to stay clear of pitiful Meyers. I have no knowledge of who he is or what he does. This entire mess has taken the focus pff of what actually happened so that he can gain more publicity at my expense. Slanderous scsndalous liar.

The comment about disbelieving me because my page is about astrology is retarded. He ignored my music, all the healing and wellness events that I perform and produce. At least my work actually helps people. Mr. Tyson’s work only helps his gigantic ego. Same goes for Meyers as well.